In this issue, we explore new notions of identity from a sociological and psychiatric perspective. How we represent ourselves – to ourselves and to others – is essential to our humanity. By better understanding the impact of our mediated selves on our interactions and our self-image, we see how media influences the essence of our being. Includes interviews with two cultural sociologists: Professor Joseph E. Davis explains the commodifying of self, and Dr. Andreas Bernard discusses the changing science of profiling.

Media literacy education requires the use of media in the classroom so it’s important for educators and administrators – as well as students and parents – to have a basic understanding of the structure and purpose of legal frameworks addressing intellectual property, particularly regarding copyright. This issue includes interviews with copyright experts Renee Hobbs, professor of communication studies, and David Sohn, copyright lawyer. The MediaLit Moments activity offers a simple way to introduce the concept to students.

Mathematics and science have always been relevant to applying media literacy, but there is now a true urgency to providing students and adults with the fluency they need to put media literacy to use in evaluating quantitative as well as qualitative information. In this issue of Connections, we interview two leaders of data-centric organizations. We also report on the International Media Literacy Research Symposium and GAPMIL NA meetings recently held in Portugal.

This is our 100th issue of Connections! We appreciate the interest and support of the media literacy community. In this issue, we interview two scholars who explain how terrorism has infiltrated the online world, how computational social science focuses on predicting future behavior in regards to terrorism, how bots undermine our trust in social media, and how media literacy can help. Interviews with Dr.

While teaching English as a second language isn’t often a focus of discussions for media literacy, the number of ESL students alone should argue for more emphasis and visibility for this educational imperative. CML interviewed Raul Alberto Mora, Ph.D., who emphasizes language learning and critical media literacy in his work with university students and preservice teachers in Medellin, Colombia, as well as Camilo Andres Dominguez-Cruz, a native of Colombia, who now teaches ESL in a North Carolina primary school, Sallie B. Howard School for the Arts and Education.

Should we place hope in technology for solving some of the problems technology helped create? Maybe. One approach worth looking at is BlockChain (distributed ledger technology) which might help to solve the riddle of where information originates, and how it morphs and proliferates. CML interviewed Ian O’Byrne, internationally recognized educator and researcher, on the topic of BlockChain technology and its connections to media literacy.

This issue of Connections looks at how technology and new data are changing the narrative around sports and media, and how that changes our experience as consumers and participants. Sports provide an excellent opportunity to not only learn people skills and health information, but they offer excellent arenas for math and science and algorithmic thinking – and of course, media literacy. And this includes sports cars, too. We have an interview with Wil Cashen, Tesla Foundation.